Well PACFAN.....you earned a degree of credibility with the use of the word makiwara board. It was our best freind in the gym.
For those of you who dont know what it is...
Ours was made from 3, 6 foot long 2x4's the middle 2x4 was about 3 or 3 1/2 feet long so there was a gap of 2" between the upper 3 or so feet of the 2 front and back boards. the front board had some padding. I think it was some electrical tape! the aparatus was concreted into the ground. The boards are quite ridgid . You stood in front of the thing and punched the front board with your bare fist (knuckles) for a series of practice punches. For the punch to count you must strike it with enough force that the front 2x4 "smacks" the rear one (remember there is a 2" gap as the middle board is shorter) making a loud clacking noise! When i was first introduced to this device i thought he was joking! Pushing the front board as hard as i could with all my body weight (then about 160) I was unable to make it bend or flex back to touch the rear board. Part of the reason is that a slow force bends all 3 boards at the same time. A strong and fast blow is required . and overcoming the fear of breaking your hand against the board. It took me 2 years before I ever heard the boards "clack".
MAny never did. Many hands were broken. Really it was a stupid idea!!
BUT!! the pride when you could step up to the board and count off repeated strikes with the loud clacking!! ICH, NEE, SUM ,CHI, GO ,ROK ,Hitch.. we counted in japanese as the students watched in amazement. One day I came to the dojo very early and caught our instructor screwing large wood screws into the makiwara board! by screwing the 3 boards together starting at the base and moving pogressivly higher and higher up it made it more ridgid and harder to bend!!! The B@stard! he just smiled at me! no wonder it always seemed so F#cking hard! After maybe 4 years the instuctor took all those who had mastered teh makiwara board and gave us other assignments! One i remember was trying to punch a hole through a cardboard box while it was just sitting on a high table. A stiff small box with thickish sides like an orange or apple box will do make sure its closed with the lid on so the sides are 2 thicknesses. TRY it! its hard! the damn thing just flys away when you go to hit it. I won many bets. AHH the memmories....(looks down at arthritised knuckles...mumbles......B@stard)